Discordant Memories
by A Spot of Bother
Summary: 50 words, 50 sentences. Multiple characters and pairings.


(A/N): A friend sent me the list as a way to get my brain back in writing gear, and it was a welcome break from...stuff. Anwyay, I did these completely out of order, so don't look for some over-reaching theme. It's just 50 words and 50 sentences that are completely unrelated to one another. Isn't randomness grand? And yes, I promise I'm also working on actual stories.

Disclaimer: Oh come on, haven't we established that I don't own these lovely characters yet?

Discordant Memories

1.** Motion** – The chakram spun and danced around him, the flames rising and twisting to his will, and Axel couldn't keep the smirk from his face as he watched the Heartless writhe in agony around him.

2. **Cool** – Axel tried to tell himself that he wasn't afraid as bits and pieces of his body broke away from him, but it was a lie – _fuck yes_, he was afraid, because the fire that had always been his center had burned out, leaving a chill that spread to every corner of his rapidly-dissolving chest.

3. **Young** – The Keybearer fascinated the Organization – how could a heart so young be so strong?

4. **Last** – Roxas was the last member to join the Organization, but he was the first of many things to Axel, including his first and only friend.

5. **Wrong** – It slipped out before he could stop it, and he knew it was the wrong thing to say when Zexion stiffened and tried to draw away; Demyx reached out and wrapped his arms around his elder, silently begging him to stay, because even if he couldn't feel, he could _remember_, and he knew he would've loved Zexion if he could.

6. **Gentle** – The Keybearer's voice would grow soft and wistful when he spoke of his missing friends, and Goofy would lay a comforting hand on his shoulder until the boy's cheery grin was back in place.

7. **One** – There was only one thing Axel needed, only one person he feared losing, but he hid the anxiety with a cocky grin and a sarcastic laugh, ducking his head to make sure he was still standing where Axel could see him out of the corner of his eye.

8. **Thousand** – Sometimes Sora worried quietly to himself that nothing would ever bring him any closer to Riku; he'd destroyed thousands of Heartless and he still had no idea where to even _begin_ looking, and how would he ever be able to face Kairi if he couldn't bring him back?

9. **King** – Sora didn't understand the King's constant admonishments to keep their voices down; even in that dark cloak, his ears were ridiculously obvious – who did he think he was fooling?

10. **Learn** – There were a lot of things that Nobodies didn't do – they didn't feel, they didn't care, they didn't dream – but Demyx thought that with time, he and Zexion could learn to forget what they _didn't_ do and discover what they _could_.

11. **Blur** – After Roxas merged with Sora, things began to blur in his mind; he couldn't be quite sure what had actually happened to him and what had been a dream – the only thing he was certain of were the smoldering green eyes that haunted his every thought.

12. **Wait** – Kairi leapt into the darkness to escape from Axel, but she also went because she was tired of waiting as events that affected those she cared about ground forward without her knowledge or consent.

13. **Change** – "You've changed," Demyx told him, and Axel realized it was true when he could only summon a half-hearted scowl at the Melodious Nocturne's cheery observation instead of the tongue-lashing he deserved.

14. **Command** – Axel didn't take the mission because Xemnas had ordered him to; he took it because at the very least he owed Roxas the courtesy of being the one to kill him.

15. **Hold** – No matter how Kairi twisted she couldn't loosen his grip on her wrist, and as she was dragged into the darkness she wondered if she would ever see Sora or Riku again.

16. **Need** – Axel didn't know when or how it had happened, but Roxas had become necessary to him – he couldn't imagine his life without him, and that scared him for more reasons than he was comfortable examining.

17. **Vision** – Roxas didn't understand the strange dreams that plagued him – flashes of people he had never known, a life he had never lived that left him with a headache and sense of wrongness that wouldn't fade until hours later.

18. **Attention** – Axel couldn't help the smirk that crossed his lips as he dodged Roxas's first swing of the Keyblade – at least he had the kid's attention.

19. **Soul** – Demyx asked him once if they possessed souls – after all, they'd had their _hearts_ stolen, no one had ever mentioned the fact that they were missing anything else; Zexion had grown still and thoughtful beside him, then pulled the sitarist closer to him, sighing softly.

20. **Picture** – Roxas didn't understand how the townspeople could believe they'd stolen the – after all, even if they _had_ taken them for some bizarre reason, how could they have possibly stolen the _word_, too?

21. **Fool** – Axel would constantly tell Demyx that he was an idiot for getting so deeply involved with another Organization member, but as time went by he stopped, no longer able to ignore his own hypocrisy.

22. **Mad** – Demyx hardly ever got angry, but he took a swing at Axel when the Flurry of Dancing Flames insulted Zexion – the redhead was so shocked he could only stare back, rubbing his jaw with grudging respect.

23. **Child** – When Axel first saw Roxas in the false Twilight Town, he almost wanted to leave the boy where he was – he looked so happy, like the kid he should've been allowed to be – but then Axel remembered who he was, and what they were, and why he had to be the only one to bring Roxas back or kill him.

24. **Now** – Lying on the ground watching himself fade away, Axel wondered if maybe he should've done something differently, but the kid had asked him a question, and Axel didn't have much time left in which to answer it.

25. **Shadow** – It wasn't surprising that Riku kept showing up in the same places Sora had traveled – if Sora was the Light, Riku was his Shadow, drawn to the Keybearer like a moth to the flame.

26. **Good-bye** – Sora didn't understand where the tears came from as he bid good-bye to the three friends.

27. **Hide** – Axel tried to hide the enormity of what Roxas meant to him, even from himself, but he knew he was a shitty liar when Demyx wrapped his arms around his shoulders in an awkward hug after finding him standing over Roxas's stone in the Proof of Existence.

28. **Fortune** – Sora would've traded everything – his munny, his armor, even the Keyblade – to know that Riku and Kairi were safe.

29. **Safe** – Sometimes Roxas wondered if he would ever feel safe again – too many strange things were happening too quickly, and his ordered world was collapsing in on itself with a speed that surprised him.

30. **Ghost** – Namine knew she was nothing but a pale specter of the vibrant girl Sora loved, but _she_ was the one chaining together his broken memories – it was Kairi who had forgotten.

31. **Book** – The castle's library was enormous, and Sora had the fleeting but intense desire to pull down a book and pretend that he didn't carry the sole responsibility of protecting the worlds – of finding Riku and Kairi.

32. **Eye** – There were times Axel wanted to rip Sora's eyes out of his head, because the similarities and _differences_ between his eyes and Roxas's tore his empty chest apart.

33. **Never** – The concept of 'never' didn't really bother Axel – neither did the concept of 'always' – but then Roxas left and suddenly the fear of never seeing him again was very real and the only thing he could think about.

34. **Sing** – Demyx sometimes thought that he must've loved to sing before, because his throat would occasionally clench with a half-remembered longing when he was playing his sitar, but he never opened his mouth – he was afraid of hearing the emptiness in his voice.

35. **Sudden** – As Demyx relaxed into the awkward embrace, it suddenly occurred to him that Zexion had never before been the one to make the first affectionate gesture, and he hid his smile against the Cloaked Schemer's neck.

36. **Stop** – Demyx didn't like to think about what happened to the lowly Nobodies when they faded, because if the Superior was right, there was no next life for them – they simply stopped being.

37. **Time** – Time meant nothing in the World That Never Was; still, Axel might have been more careful about how he'd spent his if he'd known Roxas was going to leave.

38. **Wash** – Sometimes Axel wished he could just scrub the memories from his mind – at least then he wouldn't feel so incomplete without the kid.

39. **Torn** – Sora was torn between his knowledge that the redhead standing before him was a Nobody – an enemy – and the knowledge that he might know where Kairi was, and Sora would forgive him anything if he'd only share that information with him.

40. **History** – The Organization's history wasn't a happy one, so Axel wasn't surprised when things began to fall apart.

41. **Power** – Kairi fervently wished she possessed power of her own – what good was being a Princess of Heart when you were locked behind cold steel bars?

42. **Bother** – Maybe if some of Sora's mannerisms hadn't been so painfully similar to Roxas's, it wouldn't have hurt Axel so much when he watched the boy, waiting for a chance to grab him and escape.

43. **God** – Demyx didn't know who he directed the thought to, but as he faded he hoped, with all his being, that he and Zexion had a next life, and that Zexion would be there waiting for him.

44. **Wall** – Axel was the only one able to scale the walls Roxas erected against the other members of the Organization – the only one the Key of Destiny would tolerate on a daily basis.

45. **Naked** – Kairi felt herself stripped bare by his desperate gaze, his haunted voice: "I want Roxas."

46. **Drive** – The thought that if he defeated just one more Heartless, freed just one more world he'd be allowed to go back to Riku and Kairi was all that kept him going sometimes.

47. **Harm** – By the time Axel could see the pain that came with involving himself so deeply with another person, he was too entangled to pull back out.

48. **Precious** – They were both precious to her, and she hadn't seen either of them for over a year – she didn't know if they were safe, or happy, or even alive, and that knowledge hurt her more each day.

49. **Hunger** – When Roxas met him at his door after a tough mission, Axel thought that maybe that was all he had ever wanted, all _anyone_ ever wanted – someone to worry, to care just a little about whether you were still alive or not.

50. **Believe** – The first time Axel slept with Roxas he thought he might finally understand how Demyx could believe they'd succeed in regaining their hearts, because in that moment – Roxas moaning his name, tearing his nails down his back as he matched Axel's rhythm – he almost believed it himself.


End file.
